no, but if it feels in your hands, lightweight, nice tone, ergo correct, pretty paint.....it helps
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Does a great BASS make a great BASS player
- Thread starter MiracleFEATHRS
- Start date
I'm in the camp that talent and tools have no causation on one another; folks will just play how they play. However, people should buy what interests them, regardless of skill level. Let it be.
Agree , if you can afford and like to buy an expensive bass as a beginner or to display it in your gaff to be rarely used , so be it. I think people can get jealous sometimes.
But I think we can agree it will make you sound bett
is it subjective though? If I was an average player and had a cheap Harley Benton on stage or if I had some expensive custom bass that you recognised. You would probably go jeez that custom bass sounds great but you wouldn’t necessarily say that about the Harley unless my playing was really good. I just think it’s subjective sometimes, and there might be a perception that a recognisable expensive bass makes you sound better and it should in theory.
Does owning and riding a crotch rocket make you a professional motorcycle racer? The death statistics on those things show no.
Yes they do. I can be a poor driver but if this car grips the road better going around a corner it might be the difference. Traction control might kick in compared to one that hasn’t.
Fully agree … nowadays a proper setup can be given to almost any bass which is sold; if frets are well levelled, the pickup is in the right position for the scope of the tune being played and the strings are the right ones, the player’s hands and mind make all the difference.
I hope not. Although I have not had the fortune of getting me some Fodera or Alembic so I may never know, but that's okay, I can go on living and eventually check out without being a great bass player.
I agree. As a beginner I always suggest a good bass brand but not crazy expensive, because if it doesn't workout you have something some one will want and you can coupe at least some of your investment.
As for great bass's making you a great player? No you have put in the work that is what makes you a great player.
That is like saying I will go out and buy a Nascar and that will make me a great race car driver. Can a Great bass player sound great on a cheaper instrument? Setup correctly of course, I would bet my butt anything you hand to Marcus he will sound like Marcus. It isn't the bass it is the bass player
As for great bass's making you a great player? No you have put in the work that is what makes you a great player.
That is like saying I will go out and buy a Nascar and that will make me a great race car driver. Can a Great bass player sound great on a cheaper instrument? Setup correctly of course, I would bet my butt anything you hand to Marcus he will sound like Marcus. It isn't the bass it is the bass player
The sound is in your fingers, IMHO this is the ultimate truth.
Playing a great instrument is very satisfying, but playing a gig with a borrowed beat up old bass and sounding good is the ultimate way to get high -regardless if the public noticed it or not-.
Playing a great instrument is very satisfying, but playing a gig with a borrowed beat up old bass and sounding good is the ultimate way to get high -regardless if the public noticed it or not-.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
A good player will be able to make most any bass sound as good as it can, within its limitations. Certain things may be physically impossible to do the same way on basses with wildly different setups. In the end, the bassist will sound like themselves regardless of the instrument. I own a lot of basses and record a lot with them. I always sound like myself, in varying shades. A poor driver behind the wheel of a Ferrari will always be a poor driver. A great driver can extract the most possible out of a Honda Civic. In the bass world, I played Foderas and other high end axes that left me feeling 'meh', while my Lakland Skylines always feel great and inspire me to play. YMMV.
I’m in the middle on this one.
I think musicians who have instruments they really love practice more. Especially if they had to grind to pay for it.
The quality of affordable instruments has come a long ways though also.
I believe in such thing as seeing through the BS also. Lot of cheap instruments can sound good using certain techniques but sound like garbage the way I’d actually play 95% of the time. For example if I’m a salesman trying to sell a bass and I know the bass doesnt sustain well what you do is hide that by playing muted lines. If a bass doesn’t sound good clean you only show it off with overdrive. You dont show off its faults. And I believe LOT of people fall for stuff like that.
but on the other side of that I do believe in diminished returns, we play an electric instrument. Most $2k basses sound good. But any bass is only going to sound as good as what we run it into. It’s easy to say nice basses aren’t worth it if your amp isn’t very transparent, it’s easy to say expensive basses aren’t worth it if you’ve never recorded in a nice studio. It’s also kind of goofy to spend $10k on a high end Fodera you don’t have all the other gear so the difference actually translates.
BobDeRosa
Commercial User
- May 16, 2012
- 2,445
- 4,403
- Disclosures
- Owner, Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps
I will spend on a bass only as much as I deserve. I have never bought a boutique and will probably never deserve one. Reading between the lines you probably realize that I don't believe a more expensive bass will make me a better player or a heavier practicer. You're going to practice as much as you're going to practice no matter what kind of piece of wood is hanging off your shoulder.
A great bass may not make an inexperienced player sound good, and an experienced player may be able to make a bad bass sound great, but a bad bass will make an inexperienced player sound worse.
Moral? if you are inexperienced, buy a good bass. If you are good, save your money
Moral? if you are inexperienced, buy a good bass. If you are good, save your money
The best players I know are former pros that toured in the 80s. One plays a stingray. The other two play Schecter and mim fenders. They all still sound better than everyone else. You can’t buy talent or take shortcuts in learning. It’s not the 90s anymore where you had to spend 1000 for a good bass. Pretty much everything is good now.
Just and adjunct comment to that:Moral? if you are inexperienced, buy a good bass. If you are good, save your money
Also, it's true right now that there are more high quality, great bang-for-the buck, basses available at relatively low cost than ever before. It's really a good time to be shopping in that "value" end of the market.
That is, you don't even need tons of money to get a perfectly good, serviceable bass.
Pretty much all mfgers have had to respond to this "value wave" by now, everyone's upped their game.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, anything less than precision craftsmanship by solid gold robots working within tolerances of +/- .0005” will stifle the virtuosity of my eighth note roots.
